The Power Of Prayer

Hello once again!

Prayer is an integral part of an individual's stewardship "process." It is important because it is through prayer that we are able to discern God's will for us. Prayer eventually is able to provide us with a "road map", revealing avenues through which we can use our spiritual gifts to enact God's will in the world.

To me, prayer is an experience unlike any other. Once everything else has drowned out, all I can feel is that... connection. The excitement. The empowerment. The energy. I can't find the words to describe the feeling of tapping into that energy that binds us all... Luckily, I don't need to, because we all have access to it.

The problem that I see with prayer is that too often, we use prayer as a means of absolving ourselves of any necessity to act, rather than using it as a part of the process empowering us to take action. We find ourselves praying to ask God to take action in order to have some effect in the our lives or the lives of others, rather than using prayer to seek a means through which WE can act. Avenues through which WE can make that difference in someone's life.

This strikes me as an example of making our faith passive rather than active, a problem that is in no way a new one. Admittedly, it does seem easier to just ignore the archetype of crucifixion and resurrection that we are called to emulate. Ignore the empowerment that we are all given and all the work that the ability to make our own differences out there in the world entails. Sure, it seems easier to just keep expecting God to bring about Kingdom while we sit here, waiting. But is it responsible? Or does being a good steward mean using prayer as a jumping off point for getting our hands dirty?

Your Stewardship Team

God's Household: A Primer

Hello again, everyone! It's been too long. I would like to preface the following article, which is also found in your July Connection, by explaining this new format we are going to be using for the Stewardship Blog. In addition to original content created exclusively for this blog, which will begin to resurface in the coming weeks, we will be posting the Stewardship Connection articles from the monthly Connection up on this site as well. I think that this will help us in two distinct ways. First, by allowing you, the reader, to interact more directly with us and provide your feedback regarding our monthly articles. Second, it will allow us to easily post more content on the site, and will allow the articles to be seen in more of a "big picture" context, in relation to other articles. We're excited to be getting reestablished, and hope to hear from all of you in the coming months. Now, on to the July Connection article.

In a recent Bible Study we learned according to author M. Douglas Meeks in his book, God The Economist, that there is an economic sphere in which we all reside. The sphere in which we reside is God's household. The order of God's household is reflective of God. God's household has those living according to the house and that the order (of the house) and that the order (of the house) is the economy of the household. That economy displays a universal welcome where the doors are always open and there is always room at the table and that everyone has a chore. The qualities of the household include equality, justice, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and love at least, where we live an alternative way of life reflecting the archetype of crucifixion/resurrection. Living this way gives us God's household. It is all about what we do and what we do is called Stewardship. The steward makes living in the household tolerable. We as stewards make living in the household tolerable. The scope of God's household is to dispense God by Spirituality in Stewardship. How do we dispense God and expand God's household by expanding a way of life that reflects who God is? We spread God's household by giving of our time, talents, and treasures learning to speak the language of spirituality and not necessarily the language of "religion."

Your Stewardship Team

Giving Of Ourselves?

I don't know if it started when I joined the Stewardship Ministry Team, as I can't remember ever having a real need to use this phrase prior to that, but I am someone who frequently uses the phrase (or some variation of) "giving of ourselves." As someone who writes things here and there for stewardship, you can see how this phrase might come into play. As we all came to embrace the idea of stewardship as the cultivation of our spiritual relationship with God through the giving of our time, talents, and treasures, it seemed fitting to think of this as "giving of ourselves." The obvious sacrifice of "giving of ourselves" seemed to go along so well with the sacrifices that all of us were making in our stewardship, and I found a deeper element rooted in some sort of implication that this phrase implied giving everything we had to give, even pieces of ourselves. It added a sort of emotional connection to what we were doing, by claiming that which we were giving as a part of "ourselves." We were not just donating to the food pantries, we were giving of ourselves. We were not just volunteering to work at the pumpkin patch, we were giving all of our time that we could muster. Now, I find a problem with this phrase.

The problem, to me, is that this phrase makes what we are doing all about us, when it really is not. These gifts that we are sharing with the world through our stewardship, these gifts that we claim as our gifts or as a part of ourselves, are gifts that we have already been blessed with by the spirit. These "spiritual gifts," though different based on the individual, are given to each of us so that we make take them out into the world and use them to bring God's will to fruition. We are called to use them. Yet, when we do use them, too often it is not in answering the call to share these gifts in every opportunity. It is using these gifts at a time and in a way that is convenient for us and our schedules. It is "giving of ourselves" rather than utilizing the gifts of the spirit that we have been given to their fullest in order to bring about Kingdom. However, we are getting better, and are beginning to act in a way that promotes God's will in the world without concern for self. But the question I keep coming back to in my mind is...

Does the idea that we are using these spiritual gifts out in the world to fulfill the purposes for which they were given to us warrant any sort of "sacrifice of self," or is there really as much flaw in phrases like "giving of ourselves" as I am currently seeing there to be?

Yes, it is through our stewardship and the development of our spiritual relationship with God that we are given the opportunities to share these spiritual gifts, but are they really our gifts to look at with a sense of personal sacrifice?

On the one side of the coin, I feel like we all view our stewardship as being built on personal sacrifice. We see the opportunity costs associated with the money we give or the time that we spend in ministry, and view all of these decisions as a conscious choice that we have to make regarding the use of our gifts. On the other side, however, I can see that some of us were given voices to sing, and spread God's love through song. Some of us were given talents in home repair, to spread God's will by bettering the lives of others. Some of us were given joy and the gift of laughter, to spread God's love by putting a smile on the faces of complete strangers. And all of us were given time, to spread God's will by working to bring about Kingdom in the world. If we are simply using a gift we have been given by the spirit for its intended purpose, is it really "self sacrifice," or is it simply answering our call?

What do you think Shiloh?
Justin Sierschula